The board chairman of the Ukrainian Railways public joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia), Wojciech Balczun, expects a new Kovel-Chelm international train to begin transporting passengers on 1 July.

"We are currently doing everything to ensure that a Kovel-Chelm train begins operating on the route on 1 July. It will be a rail bus of the Pesa model. We expect our passengers to benefit in two ways: there are comfortable transfers to cities such as Warsaw, Lublin, Zamosc, and Rzeszow in Chelm. That is, it will be possible to reach all corners of Poland," Balczun wrote on his Facebook page on 23 February.

He added that Ukrzaliznytsia is also considering plans to launch trains on the Lviv-Krakow route. "There is a good chance of seeing it in the timetable this summer," he said.

In addition, Balczun said that the new Kyiv-Lviv-Przemysl international train transported more than 25,000 passengers in two months, including 16,000 in 2017 alone. As reported, this train began operation on 23 December 2016.

Balczun attributes this popularity of the train to attractive ticket prices and the fact that passengers do not need to queue for a long time, as they have to do when crossing the border by road.